Keep America Beautiful, Coca-Cola to Award 3,000 Recycling Bins to Communities Nationwide

National nonprofit Keep America Beautiful and The Coca-Cola Foundation have announced the opening of the application period for the 2017 Coca-Cola Public Space Recycling Bin Grant Program, which is designed to expand access to recycling in public spaces in communities across America. Grant applications are available online at BinGrant.org until November 17, 2017.

Since launching in 2007, the grant program has awarded public spaces with nearly 50,000 recycling bins, providing opportunities for recycling on the go to 2.1 million people on a daily basis. To date, more than 930 grant programs have been awarded in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. And together, they have collected an estimated 21 million pounds of containers and other recyclables.

The 2017 program is expected to award up to 3,000 recycling bins for locations such as streetscapes and playgrounds, athletic fields, fairs and festivals and colleges and universities. The program is funded through a $300,000 grant from The Coca-Cola Foundation to Keep America Beautiful, which in turn awards recycling bins through a competitive, merit-based application process.

“Our partnership with The Coca-Cola Foundation is helping us overcome a primary barrier to recycling outside of the home–lack of conveniently available recycling bins,” said Brenda Pulley, senior vice president of recycling at Keep America Beautiful, in a statement. “With these grants we’ve made great strides over the last decade to expand access to recycling in public spaces.”

Eligible recipients for the 2017 Coca-Cola Public Space Recycling Bin Grant Program include government agencies, colleges and universities, civic organizations, public and local nonprofit groups throughout the United States.  Keep America Beautiful will award the grants in November 2017 and make arrangements with suppliers to deliver recycling bins directly to the recipients in the first quarter of 2018.

“At Coca-Cola, sustainability is factored into everything that we do,” said Helen Smith Price, president of The Coca-Cola Foundation, in a statement. “Through our partnership with Keep America Beautiful and the Public Space Recycling Bin Grant program, we are working to reduce waste and increase recycling rates by making recycling bins more accessible and convenient for communities.”